Messages - glorbes

Ah yeah. Nothing in the galaxy is sexier than Mandalorian Armour...these guys have style. Anyway, I wanted to keep the basic elements intact, but play around with a few things to make this guy look clunkier and more "old-fashioned."

The base figure is the X3 Magneto. The helmet is an original sculpt, with vinyl panels added to give the design sharper edges. I'm actually much happier with how this helmet turned out compared to my Boba Fett.

The back pack is made from a bunch of crap from the fodder bucket. The spear/vibro-blade is made from an early McToys Gene Simmons figure accessory and a styrene sheet. The uniform is fabric, as is the skirting. The armor plates are styrene as well, and the shoulder pads are from a Legolas figure.

I wanted to give the armour more of a "personalized" look for the figure, almost like some sort of tribal insignia. The pattern is meaningless, but did end up sort of resembling the Mandalorian symbol that is on Fett's shoulder armour in the films.

I had a tough time deciding how much to add to this guy. Boba and Jango have all kinds of doo-dads on their armour, but I ended up pulling back on that a bit...all of the bits and pieces I considered adding just didn't look right.

Thanks for the feedback. Darth is one of my personal favorite customs as well...glad you like how he turned out.

hemble

Well Ron, I gotta tell you that your feedback means a whole heck of a lot. Hope to see some more 6" stuff from you soon...that Indiana Jones was unbelievable.

speedermike

I have indeed made a Boba Fett...he's an older custom but I'll have to post him here soon. One thing I loved about the Tartakovsky cartoons was the image of Obi Wan wearing Clone armour...that's actually one thing that spawned this whole idea of customizng alternate versions of these characters for me. Thanks for the feedback.

Darth Depressis

Thanks for the feedback, Darth...its greatly appreciated, I assure you.

Glassman6

Thanks as always for taking the time to comment, Glassman...you're a tremendous talent yourself, and I appreciate your feedback.

You really do work miracles at this scale. The paint work is worthy of a 1/6 scale statue, and the modifications you make are always so realistic and sensible. That Recon stormtrooper is a thing of beauty...seriously, the whole concept and the look of the cutaway helmet is simply phenomenal. On the rebel trooper, again you prove how effective a preposed "vignette" can be...the soldier contemplating the helmet is just such a great scene that raises all kinds of questions...you manage to tell a story and infuse the figures with such life and realism.

Initially, I was going to do some whacked-out Clone design, but I got an idea of how to make a slightly tighter Stormtrooper helmet that I hoped would improve upon my previous version, and went with it. I can always make a Clone later on

The base figure is 100% movie Green Goblin. The shin armor is...from the fodder pile. The chest and stomach armor is styrene with a few fodder bits here and there, and the helmet is epoxy putty with vinyl panels.

The panels were placed on a rough shape for the helmet to create the details and signature profile of the helmet. The nozzles at the bottom-front of the helmet are crooked, which is bugging the hell out of me but I'm probably not going to fix it.

The thighs and arms are covered in leather. This is based on some of McQuarrie's designs, where parts of the armor on his initial stormtrooper illustrations were made up of leather. The cape is fabric, and the right shoulder armor is from a ML8 Iron Man.

The rifle is a combination of a few different guns from the fodder pile with a leather strap thrown in. I'm happier with parts of this custom than with my previous trooper...but I still plan to make a Clone Trooper.

When I was a kid, my imagination ran wild with the whole Clone Wars thing. A throwaway line from my favorite movie, and it pretty much grew to a massive epic, featuring thousands of Jedi fighting a bunch of guys in Boba Fett armor, while also fighting badass Dark Jedi, all in a desperate attempt to save the Republic from destruction. The creation of Darth Vader, the origins of the Mandalorian armor that Fett wore (was he a former Stormtrooper, and if not, what was his story?), and a whole lot of Jedi getting slaughtered against the backdrop of epic battles and destruction. I guess we kind of got this stuff in the prequels, but it just didn't seem as cool as what I imagined. It was all just so "meh"...which I guess could be attributed to the fact that I was, like, seven years old when I first worked myself up into a tizzy, and now I'm in my mid-twenties.

But I digress. For a while now, I've been toying with the idea of creating figures of characters from the Clone Wars that completely ignores the prequels and attempts to explore stuff that I would have liked to see. Obviously, I can't completely divorce my mind from the films, and the fact is I like Grievous and I like a lot of the Jedi character designs...but for this figure, I was looking more for a badass, armored and ready for battle Obi Wan.

The base figure is Theoden. I initially tried to rework the armor he had, but it was too bulky and too recognizable as Theoden's armor, so after wasting some time and epoxy putty, I simply removed the pieces of armor and built my own using styrene. Its actually very similar to Theoden's torso armor, but I made the design more angular and a little more industrial looking. I wanted to evoke a medieval knight, but I also wanted it to look like it could be some sort of retro-futuristic suit.

The Bernard Hill likeness is pretty good, which works against me separating the face from the character. But, I also saw a bit of Alec Guinness in the sculpt, so I tried to paint the face and eyes to look like Obi Wan from the first trilogy, but perhaps a bit younger (not too young though).

The idea that I had for this figure was that Jedi, while powerful, are not superheroes either, and would benefit from wearing protective gear in battle. I thought about making the armor white, but I want to save that for an idea I'm cooking up for a Clone Trooper. In this case, I decided that the black, tarnished armor was simple and functional, and that Kenobi had seen plenty of action throughout the war. He is, after all, a general.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. Its been a VERY long while since I've posted anything...mostly due to the fact that I haven't made any Star Wars customs in well over half a year. But, I've picked up a few ideas along the way, and figured I'd jump back in the SW saddle.

First up is a revamp/redux of a previous custom:

General Grievous

After acquiring some inspiration and some sheets of styrene, I set about updating and completing my custom Grievous.

The chest, upper arm, forearm, and shin armor is made from styrene. That was the major structural alteration to what I had previously.

I also did an extensive repaint, trying to bring the look of the character that much closer to the final design in the film (but still not quite 100%).

For his cloak, I just used some scrap material, lined the seams with wire to give it some poseability, and made sure I could easily slip it on and off from around the neck. The scale of the fabric is a bit too heavy for a figure this size, but I think it looks alright.

Now, I'm aware that my version of the character is still off-model from the character in the film, but that has to do with working around action figure articulation and a much bulkier base. I actually have plans to revisit the character using armature wire in order to create a more accurate model, but this figure fits the bill for now. Among the issues that I'm eager to solve in any subsequent versions is creating the four arms attached to two axis (as opposed to this version that has a separate joint for all four arms).

This was a challenging figure, and while not perfect, I'm finally happy with how he looks on the shelf.

I'm a graduate student, and as such am unemployed during the school year. Unfortunately, the summer job hunt has not gone very well for me since April, which means no money but tonnes of free time (when I'm not pounding the pavement). As a result, I pretty much work on customs and commissioned pieces in six hour chunks, with brief breaks to eat, make coffee, and converse with the people I live with. I'd say that I have an all customs day about once a week...I do not recommend it, if only to preserve your sanity and health.

As a luxury, customizing time should be treasured. As the norm, its bad news

Very cool stuff, man. The paint application and weathering on these suckers looks fantastic...very realistic.

But ff I may make a suggestion...

I think the fabric you're using looks a little off for this scale. I applaud the use of it, but I think you'd get better results using leather.

I use leather considerably on my customs, and I acquire it by shopping for leather jackets at thrift shops. You can usually snag one for about $15, and it will provide enough material for many many figures (especially at the 3 3/4 scale!). It works great with adhesives, has no fraying edges, and take primer and paint extremely well. It also looks smashing when used on action figures because it does not betray the size of fibers, threads, and stitching, and eliminates scale problems that are unique to fabric.

McQuarrie had designs numerous outfits and looks for the central characters. One that always caught my imagination was a drawing of a female Luke Skywalker (or whatever the character's name was at that stage of development). This is my take on that sketch.

The head, torso, and arms are a ML Elektra. The hands are from the Leila figure I used as a base for my Threepio, and the pelvis and legs are from an X-Men Classics Gambit figure. The musculature is a little too defined on the legs for my tastes, but I have yet to fix it. The cap is epoxy putty with leather and vinyl goggles, and the tunic is leather with Darth Maul macrobinoculars. The lightsaber is my favorite hobby doweling and some pieces of metal tubing and leather for the hilt. The gun is made from bits and pieces, and the holster is leather. The back pack is just a piece of junk fodder that I thought looked cool.

StormtrooperJust the same custom that Hemble posted before on my behalf. The head is an original sculpt (and is a bit rough...it was one of my earliest customs from this series and I was still refining my sculpting skills on this one). The body is a modifed X-Men Ruby Quartz armour cyclops figure, and the gun is a modified Matrix Twin machine gun. The back pack is a Cyclops accessory with Plan B WWII German accessories added.

Thanks for the kind feedback! The slender look seems to be more a quality of the prequel designs...I guess this version of Threepio sort of combines those design elements that I like with the more weathered and battered look of the older films. I prefer the used universe, but I must say the elegant touches of Ian McCaig and Doug Chiang are not without their charm.

jedistyle

Thanks for the feedback, man. Yeah, Threepio's blade was a bit whimsical and unintended...originally it was much longer, but then I figured that would be too much.

BrentS

Thanks for commenting. I'll be sure to post a group shot of these customs together when they're all up...that should give you a sense of scale. Heck, I'll throw in a shot with a Star Wars figure too . Thanks again.

Fritzkrieg

Thanks for the feedback, man. These customs are in 1/12 scale (roughly 6"). I've provided a link of the base figure I used for Threepio:

Hopefully it gives a sense of the changes I made and the things I kept.

speedermike

Thanks for posting in here, and for the kind words. The Luke design that you mentioned is indeed the one that I used for inspiration...I'll be posting my Lady Luke next. Thanks again.

glassman6

Thanks for the kind feedback, glassman. Artoo was a fun challenge...I couldn't think of any Artoos in 6" scale, so I guess a bit of parts harvesting really was required.

RollaJedi

Thanks for the tips and for the feedback, man. Pretty cool stuff there too. For lightsabers, I found this clear, very small doweling at a model/hobby/railroad shop...they had green, blue, and red colors...perfect for sabers at this scale. Check it out...it was with the railroad models.

Gregorbian

Thanks for the feedback, man. It's a very nice thing to hear that you feel this stuff contributes to the boards in some way...thanks again for the kind welcome.

Shrumpel Thichna is one of my favorites. I love the use of the Clown head...the scale really gives this character an alien appearance, and your paint really brings the whole thing together. A great design that you have made work extremely well.

The Jedi Council chamber is an impressive diorama...it looks beautiful. The paint is clean and consistent, the colors look and feel right, and the whole production is very authentic.